


I Love You

by hungry_hobbits



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Drabble, Love, M/M, Pining, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 18:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16645538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hungry_hobbits/pseuds/hungry_hobbits
Summary: Love was not given so easily by him. It was a commodity in short supply. Rarely given, rarely received. He wondered at times, especially at this point in his life if he could experience it.True love. One that asked for nothing but love itself in return. It seemed so silly. So frivolous. And yet,He loved Billy.





	I Love You

**Author's Note:**

> this is a prompt fill for graduatedpillowmonster on tumblr but i plan to (hopefully) follow it with a second part

Love was not given so easily by him. It was a commodity in short supply. Rarely given, rarely received. He wondered at times, especially at this point in his life if he could experience it.  _True love_. One that asked for nothing but love itself in return. It seemed so silly. So frivolous. And yet,

He loved Billy.

He was sure of it. So sure. He knew they’d be together for a long time, that they’d go to the islands and live under the sun. He could see them there, just as clear as day. It was his dream, and it was one he was willing to share with him.

Happy. Together. In love.

He rarely indulged like this. It was safer to keep a distance. Safer for him, safer for Billy. He couldn’t help himself. Billy made him smile. He liked that. He wanted more.

Hickey would watch him sometimes in his tiny room. Quietly observing his nightly rituals, watch him groom and preen. Billy was not a handsome man, but to him – Billy was beautiful. Tired eyes, gaunt face, long fingers, unruly curls. Little things, little features; Hickey loved them all.

“Surely you must have something  _better_  to do?” Billy would ask. He wanted his privacy, a moment to himself and without someone needing him, wanting something of him. He looked to Hickey from the side, through the mirror, but never head on. Talking to a reflection was easier.

“No.” Hickey replied, “I do not.” A smile spread across his narrow face. He would never be so open with his feelings, his emotions. They were something to hide. They were a show of weakness. Vulnerability. But he did not feel weak with Billy.

“I love you.” He dared himself to say it out loud. Not too loud. It was for Billy’s ears. Though if he were allowed he would say it louder. He felt a flutter when he said those little words, so foreign and strange. He liked it. Quite a lot.

Billy did not respond. He never did, at least not right away. Perhaps he was thinking about the flutter in his own chest, if there was one. Hickey wasn’t sure if other people felt it when they said or heard the three little words. He rarely heard them, they were long absent from his life. And who would be around to say them? His whore of a mother or his corpse of a father? No, there would be no love from them.

But from Billy…

“Do you love me?” Hickey asked, that smile still stuck to his face. It was a genuine smile that made his features less sharp, more inviting and less mischievous.

“I do, Cornelius.”

“Will you say it?” His head tilted to one side, a curious look in his eyes. Piercing in their color and always in their gaze. Billy felt they were inescapable. Always on him, even when Hickey was nowhere to be found.

Billy finally looked at him. Not completely, though not through the mirror. A look tossed over his shoulder.

“I love you.”

It didn’t sound like when Hickey said it. It sounded odd. Flat. Though not forced.

Hickey’s face lit up. It always did when Billy said the words back to him.

Billy said it. That is what mattered. And Hickey believed him.

**Author's Note:**

> hungry-hobbits.tumblr.com


End file.
